Comedian Frank Shuster Dies at 85

Published 12:54 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Comedian Frank Shuster, who with his partner Johnny Wayne appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 67 times, died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 85.

Shuster was the sunnier, subtler and taller half of the team nicknamed "The Kings of Canadian Comedy." They performed together for more than 50 years.

The Wayne and Shuster team _ whose comedy was a blend of gentle satire and zany fun _ first appeared on Sullivan's show in May 1958, spoofing the assassination scene in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." It was called "Rinse the Blood Off My Toga."

The boyhood friends first appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio in 1941 before moving in the 1950s to television, where they stayed until 1989.

They were added to the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1999 and were among the first six inductees into the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame in 2000.

"Frank Shuster was part of one of the great comedy teams on CBC in Canada and indeed in all of North America," said Slawko Klymkiw, the CBC's executive director of network programming.

"Comedy has always given insight into ourselves and, in the case of Canada, Frank Shuster was an important and principal creator of sketch comedy in the radio and television age."

The duo twice was named best comedy team in North America by U.S. television critics and editors.

Shuster once said the comedy team clicked because the partners had opposite senses of humor. Wayne died in 1990.

"Johnny's is very broad and mine is subtle. He overplays and I underplay and we meet halfway," he said.

Shuster and Wayne first met as youngsters in their native Toronto. Both graduated from the University of Toronto.

Wayne and Shuster also entertained troops during World War II and the Korean War. Shuster was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1997.

Shuster and his wife, Ruth, were married for 50 years. They had two children.